Gorillas, Chimps & Tree-Climbing Lions: A Uganda Safari Diary

Kibale National Park sits in western Uganda and holds more primate species than anywhere else in the country — 13 of them. That's how it earned the name "Primate Capital of the World." For most travelers, me included, one species is the real draw: wild chimpanzees.
Getting to Kibale

The drive in is part of it. You wind through tea plantations and farmland, with plenty of rural life to watch along the way. Lodges and tented camps cluster close to the park, so you can stay comfortable and still be at the trailhead early — which matters, because chimpanzee tracking starts at first light.
The chimpanzee trek

Treks begin with a morning briefing from the guides at park headquarters. Then you head into dense forest on foot. This is real walking, not a stroll — the chimps move, and you move with them, following calls through the trees. When you finally catch up, you might find them feeding on the forest floor or crashing through the canopy overhead. The guides read the forest as you go, pointing out birds and plants, so the time between sightings is never dead time.

Chimp in Kibale National Park (Kassandra Magruder)

Beyond the chimps
Kibale is not a one-species park. Red colobus, L'Hoest's monkeys, and a long list of birds share the forest, which ranges from moist evergreen to grassland. Just outside the boundary, the Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary is worth a half day — swampy, birdy, and a completely different feel from the forest trek.

Baboons in Kibale NP (Kassandra Magruder)

Where your permit money goes
Chimpanzee tracking permits aren't cheap, and that's the point. The fees fund the park's conservation work and the surrounding communities, so the trek you book directly props up the forest you came to see. It's one of the clearer cases I know of where tourist money does real work on the ground.
Kibale set the tone for the rest of my time in Uganda — and the primates only got better from there.